Breaking down gender roles, one role at a time.

Did the House team listen?

I finally got around to watching last week’s House episode, which thankfully wrapped up the show-wrecking Tritter arc, and I couldn’t help but notice: Cameron was practicing medicine again. While other people were distracted by personal issues. And she wasn’t in my face the whole time. She did give House a big silly girly hug, but instead of seeming shippy, it just felt like her usual childish idealism… which I could accept as characterization if they made a bleach that removed all her past stupidity from my brain.

It’s almost as if the House writing team has listened to all the critics and bloggers who’ve been complaining about Cameron. Huh. We’ll see if it lasts.

Comments

While I appreciated that for once Cameron was at least paying attention to the patient rather than everyone else’s personal life, I spent most of the episode confused by her behavior. A few weeks ago she was chewing out Wilson for turning on House, and this week she can’t be bothered to care that House is in rehab and may go to prison for a very long time? That seems contradictory to me. I would have had no problem with her ‘patient first’ behavior if she’d ever put anyone before House before, but she never has. But I actually commented out loud “Oh, so he’s seen the show!” when the Patient of the Week started strangling her… so maybe I’m a little hard on her. 😉

If they want to make this the starting point of a new, professional Cameron though (please!) I’ll find a way to retcon it in my head.

I’m not sure she’s beyond repair, if they were willing to take the time to make the shift make sense. I’m fairly sure this is supposed to be her first fellowship, so there is some excuse for being young and idealistic, and just working with House is enough to to make most people become a bit more jaded. Personally I’ve been hoping that Cuddy would decide to make a project out of her or at least offer some guidance, since I could believe Cuddy being a little idealistic when she was new, too.

So basically I think that while it’s a good idea to give Cameron a defined character that’s both consistent and competant, I hope they don’t go the way of deciding to do that and changing her all at once rather than having a transition that makes sense. Unless that’s what the hug was for.